Antennas in various configurations exhibit limited bandwidths. For some applications, it is desirable to have antennas with broadband bandwidths. As an example, certain communication systems and radar systems need to operate over broad bands of frequency, e.g., bandwidth ratios greater than 2:1 and even 10:1. Performance of certain communication systems and radar systems may be limited by the operational bandwidths of the antennas, especially so if the antennas are required to be compact in size (e.g., electrically small) or limited to a low-profile above the surface of a conducting (metallic) platform (e.g. a vehicle, a tank, an aircraft, etc). Many compact antennas are resonant antenna circuits and therefore have operational bandwidth ratios typically less than 1.1:1 (10%) limited to the resonant frequencies at which the resonant antennas operate. A wide band of frequencies can be achieved by using an actively tuned resonant antenna or using multiple resonant antennas that operate at different center frequencies. Examples of broadband resonant antennas include spiral antennas or log-periodic dipole arrays. The spiral antenna is unique in that its resonance occurs over a smooth continuum of frequencies because the antenna geometry scales with frequency. Nevertheless the radiation occurs from a resonant active region. Broadband resonant antennas may become inefficient when placed a short distance above a conducting surface and may be required to be loaded with absorbing materials to recover their wide bandwidth at the expense of efficiency loss due to loss of near field power into the absorbing materials.